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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCharles P. Pierce: The President* Is a Crook and Everyone in Congress Knows It
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28496494/robert-mueller-testify-donald-trump-crook/The President* Is a Crook and Everyone in Congress Knows It
Robert Mueller wasn't Richard Pryor at the mic, but he confirmed it in his own way.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 24, 2019
snip//
(An aside: if Chuck Todd uses the word "optics" ever again in connection with American politics, I am going to raise William Allen White from the dead and make him put Todd on the night rewrite desk until Jesus comes home.)
Otherwise, the hearing was a matter of having Democratic members of the committee soliciting damaging, "Yes," answers while Republicans yelled at Mueller, called his actions un-American, waved at him so the folks at home got the notion that Mueller was doddering, and basically loosed all the pent-up soundbites that they hadn't yet gotten to deliver on Sean Hannity's program. There even was a citing of Hillary Rodham Clinton's email procedures. I mean, when you can line up Louie Gohmert, Padishah Emperor Of The Stupid People, Jim Jordan, and Gaetz, you have firmly set up headquarters in the Land of the Lost.
snip//
The Democratic approach was best exemplified by Rep. Karen Bass of California, who led Mueller through a damning yes-no litany regarding the president*'s attempts to get Mueller fired through his then-White House counsel Don McGahn. Bass asked:
ON PAGE 113 IT SAYS, QUOTE, THE PRESIDENT THEN DIRECTED PORTER TO TELL McGAHN TO CREATE A RECORD, TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THE PRESIDENT NEVER DIRECTED McGAHN TO FIRE YOU, END QUOTE. IS THAT CORRECT?
AND TO BE CLEAR, THE PRESIDENT IS ASKING HIS WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL, DON McGAHN, TO CREATE A RECORD THAT McGAHN BELIEVED TO BE UNTRUE WHILE YOU WERE IN THE MIDST OF INVESTIGATING THE PRESIDENT FOR OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE. CORRECT?
OKAY. BUT THE PRESIDENT STILL DIDN'T GIVE UP, DID HE? SO THE PRESIDENT TOLD McGAHN DIRECTLY TO DENY THAT THE PRESIDENT TOLD HIM TO HAVE YOU FIRED. CAN YOU TELL ME EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED?
WELL, ON PAGE 116, IT SAYS THE PRESIDENT MET HIM IN THE OVAL OFFICE, QUOTE, THE PRESIDENT BEGAN THE OVAL OFFICE MEETING BY TELLING McGAHN THAT THE "NEW YORK TIMES" STORY DIDN'T LOOK GOOD AND McGAHN NEEDED TO CORRECT IT. IS THAT CORRECT?
Mueller answered, "Correct," or "True," or, "I refer you back to the report," to all of these. And if that isn't plainly an obstruction of justice, I don't know what you'd call it. And the fact that Mueller wasn't exactly Richard Pryor while delivering his answers doesn't matter a damn. He said the president* is a crook. Everyone in Congress knows it, and they knew it before Wednesday even had dawned. But now there's video.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)House of Roberts
(5,186 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,451 posts)warmfeet
(3,321 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts)....it a "fizzle".
Who needs to look for foreign interference when we have our own corporate media eating us from within?
Hekate
(90,837 posts)BHDem53
(1,061 posts)gOhmert, jOrdan and gAetz are sleestaks.
warmfeet
(3,321 posts)gademocrat7
(10,674 posts)onetexan
(13,063 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,321 posts)Other Presidents, when they hit a rough spot, could appeal to a broad policy agenda, other world leaders, go on a legitimate campaign tour, make a popular proposal, host a foreign leader. Everything Trump does falls flat. All he is left with is his golf tours at his own courses, railing against Mexican immigrants, or screaming Witch Hunt! He has no patriotism credibility, no ideas that are popular outside his die-hard MAGAt bobble-head base, no popular cabinet secretaries to act as surrogates. Trump is out of gas! HE is circling the wagons with his coterie of minor-league has-beens, and expecting stonewalling to carry the day. It's not a strategy, it's yet another delusion.
Once they sense public opinion shifting and see that Trump is on the run, the Democratic House will pounce. It is obvious to all where this is headed now. The push for autocracy is a semi-transparent hologram, the brass knuckles held by bonespur wannabes with paunches for abs. Sleep well, DU'ers, the game is afoot, and there are many months to go with much work to do. But the tide has turned.
dchill
(38,547 posts)Grasswire2
(13,571 posts)I had to look that up.
It brought on many laughs on twitter.
dchill
(38,547 posts)LO_t.
DemocracyMouse
(2,275 posts)made me yell out loud (gleefully) when Muellar said Putin's puppet could be indicted when he leaves office.... and when his obstruction of justice crimes were stated clearly by Muellar and the Democrats reading from his report.
THE PUPPET IS A CRIMINAL.
Keep patiently stating this to every fellow American who left their brains at the McDonalds chain store.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,451 posts)No one told Robert Mueller he was supposed to perform for ad-consumers.